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Duke  University  Libraries 
President's  mes 
Conf  Pam  #293 

DTTDE717flD 


I'RESIDENT'S   MESSAGE. 


To  the  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States  : 

Gf.ntlkmf.n  :  I  doein  it  my  duty  to  return  for  your  ro- 
consideration,  with  my  objections,  "  an  Act  regulating  fur- 
loughs and  discharges  in  certain  cases."  I  am  unable  to 
sign  this  act,  as  my  judgment  does  not  approve  it,  and! 
respectfully  submit  to  you  my  reasons  for  withholding  my 
signature. 

By  the  terms  of  the  act  any  sick  or  invalid  soldier  now 
out  of  camp,  Avhether  in  hospital  or  not,  shall  be  entitled  to 
furloudi  or  discharge,  on  the  ground  of  bodily  disability 
upon  Iho  certificate  of  any  Surgeon  of  the  Confederate 
States,  or,  of  any  Surgeon  of  a  hospital  where  the  soldier 
is  treated,  whether  such  Surgeon  be  in  the  army  or  not. 
My  o])jections  lie,  both  as  to  the  principle  of  tliis  act  and  the 
practical  difficulties  Avhich  will  embarrass  its  execution. 

I.  I  cannot  but  regard  it  as  extremely  unwise  to  grant 
control  over  any  soldier,  to  the  extent  of  discharging  him 
from  service,  to'  any  body  of  men  not  employed  in  the  ser- 
vice of  tlie  Governiaent-  over  whom  it  exercises  no  control, 
and  who  [)rcsent  to  it  no  guarantee  whatever  fv»r  the  faithful 
discharge  of  the  duties  imposed  on  them.  In  the  Medical 
as  in  alT  other  professions,  there  are  incompetent  as  well  as 
unworthy  men.  This  bill  proposes  to  place  the  jtower  of 
dischannnf'  from  the  ])ublic  service  the  whole  body  of  absent 
soldiers^  now  amounting  probably  to  not  less  than  thirty 
thousand  men,  at  the  mercy  of  any  physician  who  may  call 
his  office  a  hospital.  The  absent  soldiers,  out  of  camp, 
scattered  over  the  entire  Confederacy  are  to  be  allowed  to 
leave  the  service  at  pleasure  on  producing  the  certificate  of 
some  man  who  signs  himself  ;i  physician  in  charge  of  a 
hospital.  No  means  are  provided  by  the  bill,  and  in  the 
nature  of  things,  no  means  can  well  be  devised  by  which  it 
can  be  ascertained  at  the  office  of  the  Adjutant  General, 
whether  the  signature  to  the  certificate  is  genuine  or  not ; 
whether,  if  genuine  the  signature  is  that  of  a  physician : 
nor  whether  the  signer,  if  he  be  a   physician,  have  really  a 


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hospital  in  which  the  sick  sohlier  is  treated.  I  venture  to 
say  that  there  is  not  a  man  now  out  of  camp,  whether  sick 
or  Avell,  who  couhl  not  readily  find  means  for  procuring  such 
a  certificate  as  this  bill  contemplates,  at  the  most  trifling 
cost. 

II.  Again :  The  bill  applies  to  those  only  who  are  7iow 
out  of  camp.  But  if  the  principle  of  the  bill  is  right,  its 
application  ,<hould  he  continuous  and  permanent,  and  I 
cannot  discover  any  reason  why  it  should  be  confined  to 
those  not  in  camp.  If  a  man  out  of  camp  is  to  have  his  dis- 
charge, on  a  certificate  of  a  surgeon,  and  when  far  removed 
from  the  supervision  of  commanders,  why  not  give  the  same 
right  to  the  soldier  in  camp,  Avhere  the  presence  of  the  com- 
mander would  at  least  check  the  issue  of  fraudulent  certifi- 
cates ?  And  if  it  be  right  to  adopt  this  rule  at  all,  why  is  it 
not  as  well  a]»plicable  to  men  who  will  l)e  absent  from  camp 
next  week,  as  to  those  7iow  absent  ?  The  special  limitations 
of  the  bill  to  soldiers  out  of  camp,  and  to  those  only  now 
out  of  camp,  indicate  an  intention  to  ])rovide  for  some  pre- 
sent exceptional  eiuergency,  not  defined  with  sufficient  ac- 
curacy to  prevent  great  mischief  in  the  practical  Avorking 
of  the  law.  If  there  be  such  emergency,  to  what  class  of 
cases  does  it  extend  ?  Does  it  exist  everywhere,  or  only  at 
one  or  more  determinate  points  ?  The  language  of  the  bill 
requires  to  be  better  guarded  to  meet  what  I  infer,  from  its 
phraseology,  to  be  mu  exceptional  case ;  and  if  there  be  such 
a  case,  I  respectfully  submit  to  Congress  that  it  might  be 
remedied  in  a  less  objectionable  manner  than  is  provided  for 
in  the  bill. 

III.  It  is  obvious  that  the  intent  and  purpose  of  this  bill 
was  humane,  and  directed  to  ameliorating  the  condition  of 
the  sick  soldier,  but  in  very  many  cases  the  opposite  effect 
will  be  produced.  The  sick  soldier,  entitled  to  either  fur- 
lough or  discharge,  now  obtains  it  through  the  regularly 
appointed  officers  of  the  Government,  provided  with  blank 
foi'ms  to  be  properly  filled  up,  by  means  of  which  the  rights 
of  the  soldier  to  his  transportation  and  allowances  can  be 
readily  liquidated.  But  by  the  provisions  of  the  bill  it  will 
very  frequently  occur  that  OAving  to  irregularities  in  his  pa- 
pers, it  will  be  impossible  that  his  account  can  be  settled  at 
the  office  of  the  paymaster  ;  still  worse,  he  may  be  exposed 
to  the  loss  of  his  cherished  honor,  to  be  branded  as  a  de- 
serter by  his  failure  to  secure  the  proper  evidence  of  his 
honorable  discharge. 


I  do  not  think  that  Congress  can  have  been  aware,  that 
some  weeks  prior  to  the  passage  of  this  bill,  the  War  De- 
partment had  issued  regulations,  relaxing  the  former  rules, 
dispensing  with  many  of  the  formalities  and  simplifying  the 
means  of  obtaining  furloughs  and  discharges  for  the  sick. 
I  annex  a  copy  of  these  regulations,  which  go  as  far  as  is  in 
my  opinion  compatible  with  the  necessities  of  the  service, 
and  which  seem  to  mo  to  render  the  legislation  now  proposed 
unnecessary.  JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 

Aim't  and  Tnsp'tr  General's  Office, 
KicHMONii,  Va..  Nov'r  7,  1861. 
GENERAL  ORDER, > 
No.  17.  \ 

Paragraphs  (4)  four  and  (5)  five  of  Army  Regulations,  publish- 
ed for  guidance  of  the  army,  August  1861,  arc  modified  as  follows: 

IV.  "  "Whenever  a  non-commissioned  officer  or  soldier  shall  be 
unfit  for  military  service  in  consequence  of  wounds,  disease,  or 
infirmity,  his  Captain  shall  forward  through  the  Commander  of  the 
Regiment  or  Battalion,  to  tlic  Brigade  Commander  or  other 
officer  next  higher  in  rank  to  the  Commander  of  the  Regiment 
or  Battalion,  a  statement  of  the  case,  witli  a  'certificate 
of  disabilitj','  signed  by  the  Medical  Officer  having  charge  of  the 
invalid,  with  a  recommendation  for  discharge  or  furlough,  as  the 
case  may  require;  and  if  the  recommendation  be  approved,  the 
authority  for  discharge  or  furlough  shall  be  endorsed  on  the  'cer- 
tificate of  disability,'  which  shall  then  be  returned  to  the  Com- 
manding Officer  of  the  Regiment  or  Battalion,  who  will  cause  the 
proper  papers  to  be  made  out — final  statements  and  discharge  in 
the  first  case,  furloughs  and  descriptive  rolls  in  the  second.  The 
certificate  of  disability,  properly  endorsed  incase  oi  discharge,  will 
be  forwarded  by  Commanding  Officer  to  Adjutant  and  Inspector 
General. 

V.  Where  invalids  are  absent  from  their  regiments  or  companies 
in  hospitals,  the  Surgeon  in  charge  will  mako  out  certificates  of 
disability  in  all  cases  of  disease  likely  to  prove  of  long  continu- 
ance, and  forward  them  to  Commanding  Officer  of  Regiment  or 
Battalion  to  which  the  invalid  belongs,  for  reference,  as  prescribed 
in  preceding  paragraph." 

By  order  of  Secretary  of  War, 

S.  COOPER, 
Adj't  and  lusp'r  Geu'l. 


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